Overcoming narrow framing in decision making: A guide to broad perspectives
About me
My name is Mauro Bagnato and for over 15 years I have been leading tech organizations.
When I first stepped into leadership, I believed technical expertise was the key to being an effective leader. However, I quickly learned that organizations are living and complex systems and that leading them demands much more than just technical know-how. I believe that curiosity is at the heart of effective leadership. This is what fuels learning and experimentation, both crucial for continuous improvement. This blog aims to explore engineering leadership in all its aspects and to provide insights in a tangible and pragmatic manner. It will also be a space where I will share insights, reflections, and personal takeaways from books, podcasts, and articles that influenced and keep influencing my journey.
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We can help ourselves make better decisions by overcoming
Narrow framing.
Let’s start with very common decisions that many of us faced at least once:
- Should I quit my job or not?
- Should I buy a new car or not?
- Should i break up with my partner or not?
Can you spot the pattern?
They are formulated in a way that dramatically reduces our possibility of making optimal decisions.
They are all very clear examples of narrow framing.
In simple words, narrow framing is about looking at the situation at hand from a very limited perspective which hinders our possibility to explore different alternatives and make better decisions.
In the examples above, only one alternative is contemplated (e.g. quitting the job, buying a new car, etc.).
The right approach, instead, is to broaden our view by exploring multiple alternatives.
Consider the following formulation instead:
- How could I reduce my stress?
- How could I make the relationship better?
- What is the best way to spend my moments for me and my family?
These questions broaden the perspective and help us:
- get to the root of the problem/need we are trying to address
- explore multiple alternatives
As beautifully explained in the book “Decisive” by Chip and Dan Heath, clear examples of narrow-framed decisions are “whether or not” decisions.
“Whether or not” decisions are framed in a way that only one option is considered:
Should I buy a new car or not?
Therefore, whenever we find ourselves contemplating a “whether or not” decision, we should stop, broaden the framing, and explore multiple alternatives for a better outcome.
